Portfolio, Programme & Change Manager

Job Title:

Portfolio Lead (Business Change)

Job Description

The Portfolio Lead is accountable for establishing and running a mature, enterprise‑wide portfolio management capability within Pacific Life Re’s Business Change function, understanding how initiatives align to strategic priorities and ensuring they are delivered effectively. Within this function the role enables the Executive Committee and senior leadership to make data driven, prioritised, and strategically aligned investment decisions. Reporting to the VP, Business Change, the role leads the development of the Project Portfolio pipeline for one or more Lines of Business or DBS (Divisional Business Services) Functions, delivering integrated portfolio insight, governance, evaluation and prioritisation of projects based on business value, organisational capacity, and risk.

This role is critical in the evolution of the Business Change function to a fully integrated, insight‑led portfolio model.

Act as a trusted advisor to various divisional leadership, senior stakeholders and committees. Drive alignment across often competing priorities (LoBs, DBS Functions, Technology). Build strong relationships across Change, Finance, Strategy, Risk and Technology. Provide clear, concise updates to leadership teams.

Implement integrated planning processes across strategy, budgets and delivery, ensuring pipeline demand is clearly communicated and agreed. Challenge and shape demand to ensure alignment with business priorities. Manage the intake, assessment and prioritisation of change demand.

Translate business strategy into a coherent and prioritised change pipeline, ensuring all initiatives are clearly linked to strategic objectives and value outcomes. Establish a clear portfolio taxonomy, definitions (e.g. BAU vs strategic change) and a consistent lifecycle framework. Support investment planning, business case development and funding decisions. Align portfolio processes with Finance, Strategy, Technology, Risk and other enabling functions.

Manage and prioritise a portfolio of change initiatives aligned to business strategy. Create and maintain a single integrated view of the change portfolio (strategic initiatives, regulatory, BAU change). Provide portfolio governance: help redefine the governance framework(s) for prioritising, sequencing, and occasionally pausing change initiatives based on capacity and combined business impact – with clear alignment with other Executive Committees. Strengthen governance to ensure transparency, auditability and alignment to strategy.

Ensure clear visibility of delivery status, risks, issues and interdependencies. Deliver forward‑looking portfolio insights including:

• Delivery health and performance
• Strategic alignment
• Capacity and resource constraints
• Interdependencies and risk hotspots

Upskill the Business Change function and business areas in portfolio thinking and disciplines. Embed consistent standards, tools and ways of working. Continuous improvement: find ways to make Change more effective.

• 10+ years of hands‑on experience in portfolio, transformation or change leadership within Insurance (Life, Reinsurance preferred) or Financial Services (Banking, Asset Management).

• Proven track record of establishing or maturing Portfolio / Transformation Offices (PMO++, EPMO, Portfolio Office).

• Deep expertise and qualifications in portfolio management frameworks (e.g. MoP, P3O, enterprise PMO models), investment prioritisation and business case evaluation, portfolio analytics, reporting and tools (e.g. Planview, Clarity, Power BI).

• Strong understanding of delivery methodologies (Agile, Waterfall, Hybrid).

Strong Leadership Skills, including:

• Strong strategic thinking with ability to connect portfolio to business outcomes.

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